Blissfully Ignorant, Woefully Out of the Loop
by Blackgate Transfer
Summary: Hope Van Dyne's father isn't always very bright, and she's determined to fix that. Spoiler-y for the end of the film.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ant Man. Ant-Man created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber. I make no profit from this.

* * *

Hank knows that he caught them kissing, but they're young and young people get excited when they've had such great victories as theirs, so he thinks it's a moment of passion that they'll awkwardly laugh about when they're much older and can't even contemplate the idea of a romantic relationship with one another.

So, yeah, even though he knows something happened, it doesn't necessarily have to _mean_ anything.

But, Hope Van Dyne's father isn't always terribly bright, in spite of his genius, so she tries to nudge him every now and then and remind him that the new protege is dating his other protege, so get over it.

* * *

Hank goes into her bedroom sometimes. She likes to sneak candy into her room, has done so since she was very, very young. Hank likes candy, too. He has a sweet tooth. So, when Hope isn't there, he shuffles over to that part of the house that she claimed for herself and look through her drawers for whatever chocolate or licorice or other little sweet that she's stuffed into an unused sock or an ill-fitting t-shirt.

But one day, Hank is on his usual candy run when he finds something else hidden next to two chocolate bars in a balled-up sock: tickets to a Broadway play.

Hank is a little shocked when he sees this. He's never known Hope to like plays.

 _Granted, you've never really known Hope, have you?_

He tries to shake from his mind the thought of his neglect, and hurriedly stuffs the tickets back into the sock, along with one chocolate bar.

* * *

Once he's over the recurring regret that rears its rather ugly head whenever he thinks of his relationship with Hope over the years, he begins to think that maybe she's gotten over it, that perhaps, dare he think it, _one of those tickets is for me?_

His face lights up at the thought, because this could be a breakthrough. They could finally be achieving the closeness that he's always wanted.

So, Hank looks very happy to see Hope when she comes by, and she asks him why, and he says he won five dollars from a scratch-off, and Hope shrugs because her father doesn't need those, but it makes him smile, so she's okay with it.

Hank waits and waits and waits for Hope to surprise him, but she doesn't, so he keeps waiting, until he realizes that she must not want him to pack any clothing ahead of time, because if they're going to fly to New York, they should probably be going pretty darn soon there.

And then she's gone. She's pecked him on the cheek and said, "Seeya, Dad, I'm going to New York to catch a show." And he's incredibly upset, because he thinks he was wrong, that she wasn't warming up to him, or maybe she was, but he blew it, so she wasted her money on an old man who can't even get along with his own daughter. He doesn't go back into her room for another week, because he feels awful taking any more of her candy.

* * *

Later, Scott is visiting, and Hank overhears them talking in the kitchen and Hope mentions Cassie, and says that Cassie loved "it," whatever "it" was, and Scott says that she was singing on the car ride, and the plane ride, and she's still singing it at home, and Maggie is actually pretty tired of it, but it would break Cassie's little heart if she was asked to stop.

And then Hank realizes that it was rather strange for Hope to want to take him to a play about fairy tales and unicorns, and he stops being miserable.

* * *

"Hey, Hope?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think your dad knows?"

"Of course he _knows_ , Scott, he saw us."

"Yeah, but do you think he knows it's kind of...Well, serious?"

"Scott, I spent money on your child."

"Yeah, yeah, but does he _know_ you spent money on my kid?"

"Well, if he still goes through my room for chocolate, then I'm sure he found the tickets to _Mother Ladybug's Friendly Fireside Tales._ "


End file.
